BioGaia probiotic shows dental health benefits: Clinical trial

Sucking on a probiotic lozenge may produce “significant additional clinical improvements” to scaling and root planing for people with chronic periodontitis, says a new study.

Periodontitis is known to be driven by bacterial challenges, and, according to findings published in the Journal of Clinical Periodontology​​, 12 weeks of sucking two lozenges per day of Lactobacillus reuteri​ Prodentis (BioGaia) was associated with 53% fewer sites in patients with deep dental pockets, compared to the placebo group.

“To the best of our knowledge, [this] is the first study that reports on the clinical and microbiological effects of probiotic supplementation as an adjunct to scaling and root planing in the treatment of chronic periodontitis,”​ wrote researchers from the Catholic University Leuven in Belgium and Cukurova University in Turkey.

‘Important’​

The new study’s findings were welcomed by Peter Rothschild, President of BioGaia (the company partially funded the study). “This study is important because it shows that less patients will be in need for surgery and thus both suffering and money for these periodontitis patients could be saved with BioGaia ProDentis,”​ he said.

“The results will also help us further penetrate dental offices around the world and thereby contribute to the growth of our oral health business.”​

BioGaia ProDentis is sold in more than 20 countries all over the world.

Study details​

The researchers, led by Leuven’s Wim Teughels, recruited 30 people with chronic periodontitis to participate in their trial. All participants received one-stage full mouth disinfection and scaling and root planning, and subsequently randomized to receive either the probiotic lozenges or placebo lozenges twice a day for three months.

Results showed that both groups exhibited significant reductions in all clinical parameters but the probiotic group had reduced pocket depth and greater P. gingivalis​ reduction, compared to placebo. Indeed, the probiotic as an adjunct to standard treatment was found to significantly improved efficacy by 53%.

“The most striking result of the study was the observation that at the end of the study 67% of the patients in the control group and only 26.7% of the patients in the [probiotic] group fell into the high risk for disease progression category,”​ wrote Teughels and his co-workers.

“These percentages are comparable, if not identical, to what is reported in different studies using [the antibiotic] amoxicillin combined with metronidazole as an adjunct to scaling and root planning.”​

“This study showed that under the given conditions the adjunctive use ofL. reuterilozenges resulted in significant additional clinical improvements primarily for initially moderate to deep pockets when compared to scaling and root planing alone,” ​they concluded.

Probiotics and oral health​

Probiotics – defined as "live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host" - have been touted to become the next blockbuster functional ingredients in gum and mints by Euromonitor.

As reported by NutraIngredients-USA recently​, the After evaluating data from 23 randomized clinical trials for probiotics and oral health, Maria Cagetti from the WHO Collaborating Centre of Milan for Epidemiology and Community Dentistry at the University of Milan, Italy and her co-authors concluded: “The use of probiotic strains for caries prevention showed promising results even if only few studies have demonstrated clear clinical outcomes.”​